The Community Education Newsletter

April 1, 2020 Student Spotlight - Jayden Grey

In this month's newsletter we are spotlighting Jayden Grey, a March 2020 high school equivalency (HSE) graduate. "...My plan in life is to one day open my own charter school to help people who could wind up like me. I want to give people the opportunities they truly deserve..." Read his full story in our blog.

Check out our blog!  Read all of the latest and greatest news about Community Education! Community Ed Blog Tim Talk!  Check out Tim Talk at the bottom of the newsletter for important updates.

Lancaster County

Citizenship The evening class in Lancaster had a very successful celebration with 15 students who finished their last class on March 5. Students celebrated, shared food from each other’s cultures, and were awarded a certificate. Additionally, each student received a book to practice at home for the citizenship interview. Virtual Classroom Zoom has been a tremendous help in connecting teachers with students in an online setting with its live video features. Just this morning a teacher had six students in her virtual class! Read more innovative ways our teachers are connecting with students in our blog.

Family Literacy Led by Liz Malin, students in the Lancaster Family Literacy classes enjoyed an afternoon of interactive literacy activities together with their families. Activities included story time with the book, A Chair for My Mother , and plenty of money counting! Families also moved around the room and learned about various occupations through hands-on activities. Virtual Advising Every IU13 Community Education site has a Student Adviser. Initial and ongoing goal setting, barrier support services, transition support services, and student support services are all part of the adviser's day-to-day responsibilities. During these weeks of class suspension, student advisers continue to reach out to students to assist them in signing up for online educational platforms, employment and unemployment resources, CareerLink’s workshops, and personal needs such as Internet access, food resources, or a word of support. Look for upcoming blog articles that will feature the adviser at each site!

Lebanon County

Online Update ESL teacher Nora moved quickly to offer an online option for her students. She trained with ReadWorks and received 25 free seats for Reading Horizons. Then she held her first online, face-to-face class using Zoom. She even found out that students really enjoyed the challenges she created on Kahoot. Deb S. began using Remind and Zoom for the first time. She states, "It’s helping us to continue our sense of community at a time when we are often all alone. I am looking forward to teaching Life Science - we have some timely lessons to learn." She is also surprised that students are still requesting to have a hard copy of the material!

ESL - Valentine's Day Nora Lubecki’s morning ESL class celebrated Valentine’s Day with two delicious treats. Student Hossam supervises a pancake factory and brought in several dozen pancakes to share. Nora also got to take out her 30-year-old waffle maker, which still works, and make adorable, heart-shaped waffles! Students really enjoyed sharing a meal and celebrating the holiday with classmates.

Citizenship Lebanon’s citizenship class maintained a fairly consistent attendance average of 10 students per class. Throughout this course, the students developed a healthy learning community as they helped each other to learn the course content, to improve their language skills, and to prepare for their citizenship evaluations. During the last class, students received certificates and books to keep, and shared ethnic food from each other’s countries of origin. Family Literacy This month at our One Cumberland Family Literacy activity, parents and students read the story “Not a Box” together and got to play with all kinds of boxes! Parents practiced their story reading skills which they had learned in Parent Education; children were able to create imaginative scenarios from the different boxes provided. Parents also received a recording of themselves reading the books to their children, so that they can watch it together at home.

ESL Havilah Walker For the Winter Session, Nora Lubecki’s morning ESL class was fortunate to have Havilah Walker assist in their classroom every day. Havilah is finishing her degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from Lancaster Bible College. The students enjoyed her positive attitude and enthusiasm, and Nora was grateful to have another person students could go to for one-to-one help. We miss Havilah already and wish her the best of luck in the future! Lebanon Youth Program The most recent IU13 Certified Nurse Aide IET (Integrated Education & Training) Class at HACC-Lebanon campus started on March 2, 2020. The students were eight days in to the 28-day course when they learned the class was being delayed due to COVID19. Our instructor, Marilyn Lydic (who co-teaches with HACC Instructor Priscilla Captain), moved quickly to connect with students individually to check on their welfare and to make sure they had Wi-Fi access. In addition, Marilyn began to offer live classes using Zoom while providing assignments on the class website.

The Refugee Center & Community School

Providing Essential Services  Staying connected with our clients in the School District of Lancaster (SDoL) has taken some creativity. The Refugee Center and Community School has groups of parents/guardians on WhatsApp, and we communicate with them about school lunches, Power Packs, the census, unemployment, and other critical services available during this unprecedented time. Staying connected with our clients is essential, and using phones has worked well, as most of our clients have access to cellular technology. Prerecorded WhatsApp messages are great since navigators are able to communicate directly with clients in their home language. Our clients have expressed a lot of appreciation for the connection and cultural navigation that the Refugee Center and Community School is able to provide during school closures.

Cultural Navigation at Hand Beginning this year, Hand Middle School will receive intensive cultural navigation services. We are so grateful to the Hand administration team for recognizing the needs of their students and working with our navigators to develop a formal collaboration with the School District of Lancaster. While IU13’s Refugee Center and Community School at Reynolds provides cultural navigation to all schools in the district, Hand has an especially sizable refugee and immigrant population. At Hand Middle School, Taylor Ward-Rafael will serve as the lead cultural navigator. So far, she has begun her work by visiting nine homes, meeting with numerous parents at the school, and taking part in regular staff meetings that strategize student support. We look forward to conducting a Family Needs Assessment with English learner families in the coming months, which will further inform our efforts to support students and families in culturally responsive ways.

Tim Talk IU13 Community Education Program Director

A Word From Tim: I am sad to announce that Donna Dencler, our Lebanon supervisor, will be retiring at the end of June. For over a decade, Donna worked for IU13 Community Education as a caring teacher, a highly competent professional development specialist, and most recently, as a thoughtful and dedicated supervisor. She will be greatly missed! Click here for more information on the Full-Time Community Education Supervisor in Lebanon position.

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Contact Information: For more information about Community Education visit our website www.iu13.org/communityed or call Lancaster 717-606-1708 Lebanon 717-450-1525 Want to sign up for a newsletter? Click here or scan out QR code below!

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